Scottie Scheffler missed from 5 toes to lose the Houston Open.
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Scottie Scheffler simply appeared inevitable.
He’d gained his final two begins on the PGA Tour, two of the Tour’s largest occasions, no much less, on the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship. At this week’s Texas Children’s Houston Open, he opened the week with the bottom pre-tournament odds in a 12 months on Tour.
After the primary spherical, he had set the Tour report for consecutive rounds beneath par. Two days later, he was tied for the 54-hole lead.
Surely, Scheffler would emerge victorious from a gaggle of 5 leaders, of which solely Scheffler was a Tour winner.
Even after he fell two photographs again after making a large number of the short however diabolical par-3 fifteenth at Memorial Park for the second-straight day, Scheffler nonetheless had a par-5 left to play.
Surely, he might make up the two-shot deficit after he put his second shot inside 20 toes of the opening.
Even when Scheffler missed, nonetheless managing to make birdie to path his taking part in companion, Stephan Jaeger, by only one shot, he had a drivable par-4 left to play.
Surely, he might birdie one of many 4 best holes of the day.
Even when Scheffler pulled his drive left, performed his short-sided pitch 11 toes previous the opening and missed the putt, he would birdie the ultimate gap.
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And, sure, absolutely it appeared that approach.
At 18, Scheffler’s method from 185 yards landed simply short of the opening, checked and gently rolled out to 5 toes, 4 inches from the opening.
While Scheffler, whose short placing has been his one Achilles’ heel, missed from an identical distance on the identical gap simply two days earlier — after which missed the tap-in comebacker — this one nonetheless felt like a formality.
His opponent, Jaeger, was 15 toes exterior him. When Jaeger missed, Scheffler’s shortie felt like the kind of putt the No. 1 participant on this planet would bury, then head again to the tee for a playoff, and shut out his third straight win, turning into the primary Tour participant to take action in seven years.
But golf is tough. Scheffler’s equalizer by no means was excessive sufficient and missed low left. He handed the win to Jaeger.
“I didn’t think it was going to move very much,” he mentioned afterward. “I tried to hit it straight and I feel like I started right in the middle and looked like it broke off pretty hard, so just a misread.”
It was the one putt Scheffler missed inside seven toes on the weekend.
“I’ll move on as quickly as possible,” Scheffler added. “Obviously I’m a bit disappointed right now. At the end of the day it would be one thing if I pulled it or something like that. I just misread it. I don’t know why I misread it, it’s part of the game. Maybe I could have hit it with some more speed, I felt like I hit a nice putt kind of how I wanted to, just didn’t go.”
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The miss capped what Scheffler described as every week the place he received “some weird breaks,” regardless of ending in a five-way tie for second. After recording 11 and 17 top-10s up to now two seasons, respectively, Scheffler’s runner-up within the Houston Open marks his seventh top-10 this season in eight begins, with the opposite end being a T17 on the American Express.
After the bizzare three-putt on 18 from inside six toes Friday, Scheffler, regardless of taking pictures 66, left 4 or 5 photographs on the course on the again 9 alone Saturday. He bogeyed the par-4 thirteenth regardless of being gap excessive off the tee. Then on 15, his method on the 121-yard par-3 landed inside 10 toes of the opening, solely to spin again off the inexperienced and into the water, resulting in a double.
“I put up a good fight, felt like I had some weird breaks this week,” Scheffler mentioned. “That’s kind of the thing, like it’s tough to describe, but obviously I’m a bit disappointed. I hit two or three really good shots into 18 to give myself a chance and I feel like I made the putt and I looked up and it was breaking off. So a bit disappointing, but Stephan played great this week and he’s a deserving champion.”
Scottie Scheffler, he’s human in spite of everything.
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